Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

"incorruptible seed of the Word," which, watered
as it was soon thereafter to be with the blood of
him who sowed it, sprang up and brought forth
much fruit. But the matter would admit, of no
longer delay, and Patrick was summoned to the
archiepiscopal palace, to answer to a charge of
heresy.
Before accompanying Hamilton to the tribunal
of Beaton, let us mention the arrangements of his
persecutors for putting him to death. Their first
care was to send away the king. James V was then
a youth of seventeen, and it was just possible that
he might not stand quietly by and see them
ruthlessly murder one who drew his descent from
the royal house.
Accordingly the young king was told that his
soul's health required that he should make a
pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Duthac, in Rossshire,
whither his father had often gone to
disburden his conscience.[5] It was winter, and the
journey would necessarily be tedious; but the
purpose of the priests would be all the better served
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